The present invention relates to an improved collector leaf and an improved collector leaf assembly for use on harvesters for crops such as blueberries.
By way of background, in various types of harvesting machines, such as grape harvesters and blueberry harvesters, collector leaves are used near the bottom of the machine to catch produce which is harvested from the plants. Collector leaves of this type are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,184,908, 3,225,894 and 3,538,694 and my pending application Ser. No. 703,181, filed July 7, 1976. In the past these leaves have been of various shapes but they had one main deficiency. This deficiency was that when they encountered an object, such as a stalk of a plant or a supporting post, they deflected rearwardly to leave a relatively large opening through which produce dropped onto the ground and was therefore lost from the harvest. It is with overcoming the foregoing deficiency of prior art collector leaves that the present invention is concerned.